Geithner Won't Rule Out Tax Hikes

In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday, Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner said that bringing down the federal deficit is crucial to the long-term health of the economy.

Geithner said that the Obama administration had inherited a large deficit from the Bush administration, as well as a boatload of policies whose legacy costs drive it up even further. "We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically," he said. "We have to bring them down to a level where the amount we're borrowing from the world is stable at a reasonable level, and that's going to require some every hard choices."

While discussing how to raise revenue, Stephanopoulos noted that President Obama promised during the 2008 campaign not to raise taxes on middle-class workers and asked Geithner if the administration could stick to that promise.

Geithner said he could not rule anything out and that "we're going to have to do what it takes."

Video below . . .